Braves drop 2 of 3 to the A’s
The Good: With the starting staff in shambles, the elder statesmen John Smoltz keeps showing the kids how to get the job done. In his first complete game since 1999, Smoltz held the A’s to 3 runs on 5 hits. He struck out 4 and walked 3. His record is now even at 5-5 and his ERA is down to 3.22 (excluding his horrible first start, his ERA is 2.68!). … The bullpen cleanup continues with overdue demotion of Roman Colon. 
… Andruw Jones is on one of his hot streaks, going 5-for-11 with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs in the series. Imagine what he could do if Furcal and Giles would get on base in front of him! … Adam LaRoche was 4-for-8 with 3 runs scored in 2 games. … Brian McCann started his major league career 3-for-7 with a homer and 2 RBIs. Those numbers and his impressive game-calling abilities persuaded the Braves to retain his services and instead send Brayan Pena back to the minors when Johnny Estrada recovered from his injuries.
The Bad: So the Braves now find themselves tied for last place in the NL East (though they are still 2 games above .500). This is the 5th straight series the Braves have lost and they fell to the A’s, the team with the 2nd worst road record in the American League! … Rafael Furcal was 1-for-10 in the series and is now batting .222 on the season. Mr. Cox, there’s a guy on your team by the name of Betemit I’d like to introduce you to. … Marcus Giles was 3-for-14.
The Ugly: Adam Bernero did his best Dan Kolb impression Sunday afternoon (at least in terms of hits and runs – Bernero prefers the home run method of allowing runs rather than via walks). He self-destructed in giving up 6 earned runs on 5 hits (2 of them home runs) to the last-place A’s. Just what we what we didn’t need from what had heretofore been one of the Braves’ most dependable relievers. Hopefully, like Smoltz’s first start, it’s just one of those fluky things.
